Birkbeck Professor awarded £900,000 funding - ow.ly/wzOz9 Professor Daniel Pick of Birkbeck’s Department of History, Classics and Archaeology has been awarded £900,000 by the Wellcome Trust for a new study into the role of the clinical professions in “brainwashing” during the Cold War. The project will fund three PhD studentships, two three-year postdoctoral research posts, two visiting scholars, two major conferences, a series of roundtables, a short film and website, and various publications. Professor Pick explains: “The project will look at how various psychological techniques were developed, and used, by both sides in the Cold War, to try and achieve enthusiastic allegiance, or at least grudging consent, in populations and in the cases of captive individuals. It will also consider the ideas of psychological manipulation that were circulating in popular culture and human sciences at the time. Of course, some of the images of mind control were entirely fantastical; but it would be a mistake to imagine popular fears about techniques of ‘hidden persuasion’ were simply fanciful. For more information on the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology - bbk.ac.uk/history
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 12:50:43 +0000